Google – The Next Big Brother?

Something interesting I noticed last night. If I sign into Google with my user name and password and then search for “eyeglasses” in the Google search box, my employer, FramesDirect.com, comes up #1. If I log out and run the same search, we’re back behind a competitor. I tried this numerous times on different PCs and browsers and every time I ran the search signed in, we were #1. As soon as I logged out, the results reverted.Of course, I had initially hoped that Google was going through an algo shift or update and that we would stay in the #1 position. I even went to to the old Google Dance page at http://www.seochat.com/googledance/ to see where we were on the www, www2 and www3 servers. Same thing. We showed at #1. Then I opened Firefox and got totally different results from what I was seeing in Internet Explorer 7. In Firefox, we were still behind the competitor. I moved to several different computers in the house (doesn’t everyone have several?) and could not repeat our #1 ranking on any of them.It was then that I happened to look up at the open Internet Explorer window that showed the #1 rank. I was logged into my Google account without realizing it. I went around and logged into the account of the other PCs and, voila, we were #1.

Not as good as actually being in the #1 spot, but at least I now know what was going on.

Looks like Google is keeping up with our search habits and preferences. I really don’t like this because it gives me what I consider false results if I happen to run a search while logged into Google. I want to see what the rest of the planet sees, not what Google thinks I want to see. Who do they think they are – Amazon.com? 😉

Personalization may be the wave of the future, but a bit 1984, ya think?